U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE TO
ESTABLISH PILOT BISON PROJECT AT ROCKY MOUNTAIN ARSENAL NATIONAL WILDLIFE
REFUGE

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced it
will establish a pilot bison project at Rocky Mountain Arsenal National
Wildlife Refuge early this spring. As part of a larger, ongoing effort to
better conserve and protect wild bison within the National Wildlife Refuge
System, the Service will move approximately 15 bison from the National
Bison Range in northwestern Montana to the Arsenal.

The pilot bison herd will be located on refuge land
and enable the Service to monitor and evaluate the effects bison have on
native short-grass prairie ecology at the Arsenal and determine the role
of bison in the management of the site. In hosting the pilot herd, the
Arsenal will also play a key part in advancing the Service’s bison
conservation program.

The Service will make available to the public a bison
management plan for review and comment prior to the arrival of the bison,
and will hold a public meeting to provide additional information about
bison at the Arsenal, including potential public use opportunities, on
Saturday, Feb. 10th, 2007, from 5:00
- 6:30 pm at the Arsenal’s Administrative Records Facility (Building 129).

“Bison were once a key species on the landscape
here,” said Steve Berendzen, the new Project Leader for the Rocky Mountain
Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge Complex, which includes the Arsenal, Two
Ponds National Wildlife Refuge in Arvada, and the eventual Rocky Flats
National Wildlife Refuge in Jefferson, Boulder and Broomfield Counties.
“This pilot project gives us an excellent opportunity to determine, in a
controlled manner, the ecological response of habitat and wildlife at the
Arsenal to bison.”

“The Service’s vision for the Arsenal has always
included bison reintroduction, and was articulated in the 1996
Comprehensive Management Plan for the refuge” added Dean Rundle, former
Project Leader for the Complex and now regional supervisor for all
national wildlife refuges in Colorado, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming.
“Establishing a small pilot herd brings that vision a step closer to
reality, and helps support the Service’s work to enhance bison
conservation throughout the National Wildlife Refuge System.”

The Service is coordinating with its Army and Shell
partners at the Arsenal, and with regulatory agencies, local governments
and other entities involved with the Arsenal, to ensure plans to
reintroduce bison fully comply with all applicable laws, regulations and
policies related to the ongoing clean-up at the Arsenal and the
transformation of the site to a national wildlife refuge.

The bison identified for movement from the Bison
Range to the Arsenal contain valuable and unique genetic characteristics
that the Service, using the best available scientific information, has
determined important to the long-term conservation of wild bison. The
Service is undertaking a series of bison transfers among and between
national wildlife refuges in Montana, North Dakota, Colorado, Nebraska and
Iowa aimed at insuring against a catastrophic loss of key genetic material
These transfers are also intended to serve as an initial step toward
establishing a more holistic management approach that recognizes and
includes bison as a functional part of the National Wildlife Refuge
System, and for wild bison in North America.

Bison were historically an integral component of the
North American prairie ecosystem. Migrating bison provided essential
functions, such as grazing and other disturbances that, together with
fire, drove key ecological processes on the prairie. The decimation of
the historic bison herds across the continent in the late 19th
century removed this component from the prairie ecosystem. As the Service
works to restore and conserve prairie habitats throughout the National
Wildlife Refuge System, the agency has identified wild bison as a species
that can and will play a vital role in this effort.

The majority of bison in the United States currently
exist in private herds, which have higher rates of hybridization from
domestic cattle. This makes the Service bison herds, especially those
without detectable hybridization or with low levels of detectable
hybridization especially valuable for the long-term conservation of wild
bison.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving,
protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for
the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the
95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 545
national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special
management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery
resources offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency
enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act,
manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant
fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and
helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with their
conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program,
which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on
fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.